


Awake At Midnight

by triplefish213



Series: Sep Heap Angst Fics [2]
Category: Septimus Heap - Angie Sage
Genre: Gen, Its not even that good, id give u my kidney but breathe funny near me and ur dead, marcia and silas have that relationship thats like, oh well djaksnfjkdnf, sep is there too for like 0.5 seconds, this is actually set at closer to 4am than midnight but shhhh, this is the longest thing ive ever written
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-25
Updated: 2020-11-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:03:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27703868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/triplefish213/pseuds/triplefish213
Summary: Sometimes Marcia has nightmares. It's not unusual, it's nothing new. It bothers her, of course it does, how could it not, when she wakes up crying, screams stuck in her throat and her mind still half-caught in whatever the darker corners of her mind have come up with?Or: Silas shows up as Marcia is trying to gather her thoughts after a nightmare
Relationships: Silas Heap & Marcia Overstrand
Series: Sep Heap Angst Fics [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2038514
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11





	Awake At Midnight

Sometimes Marcia has nightmares. It's not unusual, it's nothing new. It bothers her, of course it does, how could it not, when she wakes up crying, screams stuck in her throat and her mind still half-caught in whatever the darker corners of her mind have come up with? 

Sometimes it's not so bad. Sometimes it's the same dream for a week, and the plot becomes familiar. Terrifying, yes, but familiar. More often it's new, and different, and somehow always worse than whatever it was before. She's not always back in dungeon number one. Sometimes she's watching Alther die. Or Septimus. Or Jenna. Or Endor. Or or or. One time it was Silas, and she'd spent the day feeling guilty that she was glad it wasn't someone else. It didn't matter, really. They were just nightmares. 

The problem with nightmares, though, is how draining they can be, and the choice between waking up in a cold sweat and not sleeping at all is hardly even a choice most days. 

_ Most _ days. But it had been more than a week, and she could barely stand, and surely,  _ surely _ her mind couldn't come up with some new horror on this little energy. How wrong could a person be? 

3 hours later and she was lying awake, head stuffed under her pillow to keep out the sounds of thunder from outside. The thought of leaving was just barely worse than the idea of staying put, so for a while she didn't move, head spinning and breaths coming short and sharp. Sometimes on nights like this, Alther would show up, and tell stories or jokes or do  _ something  _ to help, but he was with Alice today, and plus, he hated flying in the rain. It didn't matter. She'd be fine. 

It could have been an hour before she got the courage to sit up, or maybe it was only minutes, it was hard to tell. Either way, she was up, and she spent a half-second sat on the edge of her bed, and another to find the akhu amulet in the dark, forcing herself not to panic when she didn’t immediately feel cold lapis under her hand. 

Marcia stood up, steadying herself on the wall before making her way slowly to the door, fumbling with the handle. It was only when the dim candlelight from the corridor entered the room that she let herself breathe again, and turned to grab the blanket from the foot of her bed. She pulled it tight around her like a cloak, and headed for the kitchen.

She worried, just for a second, about what Septimus would think if he saw her now, then she brushed the thought away because he wasn’t even there. He was staying the week with his parents, after Sarah had spent nearly an hour yelling at her about how her son never got to spend any time with his family, and some other things she hadn’t really listened to.

The kettle seemed to know what to do before she even said anything, and she could hear it starting to boil even as she opened the kitchen door. Her heart was still racing from the nightmare, eyes still darting to every shadow in the room, and she sat down hard on the chair at the head of the table. Dropping her head onto her arms, she let herself cry. 

For a while the only movement she made was to reach and sip slowly at her coffee. She knew it was a bad idea this late at night - or possibly early morning, it was hard to tell through the closed curtains - but she wasn’t getting back to sleep any time soon, so what difference did it really make? Anything to put off sleep for a few hours was fine by her.

Not so long later, she heard the sound of the front door opening, and muffled voices. She whispered a spell, and the kitchen door shut itself silently. She really wasn’t prepared to deal with whatever it was that meant people were just walking straight in through the door. She set her coffee down, still holding it in both hands purely to warm herself, and listened to whoever it was in the other room.

“But dad, the lights are on. She’s got to be awake, I wanna go say hi!”

“If she’s awake I’m sure she wouldn’t want  _ you  _ to be. You can say hi when you wake up, now shoo. Go to bed, and I’ll go find Marcia if she’s awake and tell her you’re back early. Do you want me to explain everything, or-”

“Just that I had a nightmare. There’s paper in that cupboard if you need to write a note. Thanks, dad!”

Oh, so it was Septimus. And Silas too, from the sound of it. Great. 

She heard the sound of a door open and shut, probably Septimus, then footsteps fading quietly away as the person walking, presumably Silas, headed for her bedroom. He didn’t find her there, of course, and she heard him returning, stopping just outside the kitchen.

She had all of a second to realise how much of a mess she looked before he’d opened the door. They stared at each other for a moment, Marcia trying to stop crying and look at least somewhat imposing when she inevitably told him to leave, and Silas seeming more and more concerned the longer he looked, taking in the blanket-cloak and the coffee and the tears and her shaking hands.

He took a step forward, opening his mouth to say something, and that was the point that Marcia gave up. She pushed her coffee out of the way, silently letting her head fall back onto her arms. She’d passed the point of caring what Silas thought, but she still couldn’t help wondering how long it would be until the whole castle had heard about how their Extraordinary Wizard wasn’t fit for the job. The tears came faster as she thought, and she heard her own hiccupy breaths, loud in the silent room. 

She was so caught up in what-ifs that she didn’t properly register the sound of boots coming closer, and jumped at the gentle touch on her shoulder. Her head turned slightly away from it, almost automatically, but she couldn’t bring herself to move away or shrug it off.

“Marcia?” Silas sounded worried. “Are you okay?”

Of course she wasn’t. What kind of question was that? She wanted to snap out a response but her voice wouldn’t work. She dug her nails into her arms instead, trying to distract herself.

In less than a second, Silas had moved her hands away, and had started half dragging her towards the living room, giving her a small shove onto the sofa. She stared at him, rubbing at her eyes so hard it almost hurt. She wanted to tell him to leave but words still wouldn’t come, so she settled for a glare. It didn’t seem to work.

“Marcia, what’s wrong? Don’t pretend it’s nothing, even I can tell this isn’t like you.”

She kept glaring. There really wasn’t much else to do, since talking seemed impossible. Her breaths were slower, steadier, as she pointed to the door, gesturing for him to leave. She got a strange look in return, and all of a sudden her resolve wavered and she dropped her arm. That got her an even stranger look, but she ignored it, snapping her fingers weakly at the fire instead, watching it crackle to life.

Silas looked between her, and the fire, and the door. “Do you...want me to leave? I can go. I just thought maybe you wouldn’t want to be alone.”

The fire was pretty. Gold and red and orange, purple flickering through every now and then. One breath, then another, then a couple more, just for luck. “I- you can stay. Or go. I don't care.” it was quiet, but on the plus side, it was words. Which was always good

“I’ll stay.” he paused. “I’m going to make hot chocolate. Septimus should be asleep, he’s fine, don’t worry, just had a nightmare and wanted to be home.” he gave her a look as he stood up. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Mhm. Sure.” The top of the flames was starting to turn blue. It looked nice. 

Gazing into the fire was apparently a good way to pass time, because in what felt like seconds Silas was back, with two mugs of hot chocolate. He sat down next to her, handing her one. It was in her favourite mug. She had a feeling it might not be coincidence, and silently berated her apprentice for knowing as many useless things about her as she knew about him. And for sharing them. If he had. 

They stayed there, neither saying anything. It could have been awkward, but somehow the ridiculously late hour made it seem perfectly fine. Silas spoke first.

“You really shouldn’t have been drinking coffee at this time of night, you know. You’ll never sleep now.” 

“Good.”

He stared, eyes slightly narrowed, and Marcia shifted her gaze back to the fire, deliberately avoiding meeting his eyes. “It’s not like I’d sleep anyway. So it’s fine.”

The expression she found herself looking at was somewhere between shock and horror. “No! No, it’s not! You need sleep too you know, just because you’re the Extraordinary Wizard doesn’t mean you can’t  _ rest. _ ”

She had a response ready, or something like one, when she heard thunder from outside, and flinched. She’d been so caught up in her thoughts, and then Silas, but now the adrenaline had worn off and she became aware of the storm outside once again. She could feel panic building, but shoved it down in favour of shrugging as nonchalantly as she could, given the circumstances. 

She’d hidden that first flinch, but when thunder cracked again, closer, so close she could see it through the purple-tinted window, she jumped. It almost hurt not to make a sound, and the terror she’d been feeling before returned all at once.

Silas quietly removed the mug of hot chocolate from her hands, setting it on the table. She was half-aware that it would probably leave a mark. She was a lot more aware when she was pulled into a tight hug, and was moments from moving away when another peal of thunder echoed in her ears and she couldn’t stop a small cry from escaping into the still air of the apartment. Then she was glad of the shoulder to bury her face in, hiding the tears that didn’t seem to want to leave her alone. Thoughts of dungeon number one raced through her mind, much as she tried to stop them, and her usual method of ‘shut off all emotions’ didn’t seem to help. 

Her shaking only died down when the sounds of the storm outside died first. She’d stopped crying a while ago, not because she’d calmed down at all, just because it felt like she’d ran out of tears. She was almost too tired to move, though, so she stayed right where she was until everything felt something close to okay. 

She pushed back then, wiping away stray tears still on her cheeks. She whispered a “Sorry” before standing to head to her room, and nearly falling on her face. It seemed her legs hadn’t quite recovered, so she stood uncertainly by the sofa for a second, which was all it took for Silas to say, “Hey, it’s fine. I’m just glad I could help.” he stopped, considering. “I won’t tell anyone, by the way. Not even Sarah.” he smiled slightly, and Marcia gave a tiny smile back, mouthing Thank You. Words seemed to have stopped working again.

She turned to leave, and Silas said, “Wait, I’ve got something you might want.” he fished in his pockets for a few seconds before pulling out a small bottle full of pills. “Dreamless sleep. Sarah made them, gave a bottle to Septimus, but made me bring a spare in case he lost it, you know what he’s like.” he set it on the table. “Completely harmless, but only take one unless you want to sleep for a week. Found that one out the hard way.”

Marcia nodded, and managed to gather words together. “Thank you. I- thank you. If you need anything, I’ll do what I can to help. If these work...it’s the least I can do.” she picked up the bottle with a smile, “Hopefully we won’t see each other soon. Goodbye, Heap.”

Silas grinned. “Goodbye, Overstrand.” He turned and left. 

  
  
  
  
  



End file.
